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Clear as mud
I assume this happens to everyone, but I often find myself spending way too much time staring at instructions that seem to have been written by someone who assumes the reader can read minds. The most recent encounter with this phenomenon involved recipes, which, for better or worse, provide the most immediate example of this…
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Beautiful and pointless
Design has always walked a peculiar line between necessity and excess, basing itself on the notion that every problem wants a solution and every given solution must be elegantly design — even when the problem itself is, at best, debatable, and at worst, entirely fabricated. The result is an endless parade of products that solve…
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Why is the iMac so compelling?
In this age of recurrent technological anxiety, where devices compete for attention with endless notifications and awful RGB lightning, the iMac stands as a peculiar anomaly: it feels not merely as a computer, but as a sort of meditation on presence — a philosophical statement rendered in aluminium and glass. I suppose that what makes it truly compelling…
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When friendship faces mortality
“Paddleton” presents itself with the same unassuming modesty as its protagonists, two middle aged men who have built their friendship around kung fu movies and a made-up game that gives the film its title. I suppose that’s precisely what make its emotional impact so shattering: it sneaks up on you, much like the realization that…
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Beauty as a feature
The collective sigh of tech enthusiasts echoes online every time Apple releases a new product with what appears to be “an obvious design flaw”. The new USB-C Magic Mouse still charges from the bottom, awkwardly forcing it into a temporary coma during refueling. The Mac Mini’s power button is concealed beneath it, as if playing…
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Exotic, not ugly
My phone buzzed with a message from a friend, sharing an Instagram post of a 1996 Alfa Romeo listed for R$19,900. I clicked on the link and my initial reaction was clear: this car is ugly. But the seller’s word choice had me thinking about the power of words in marketing — it wasn’t just…
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Got a bent parabola?
In college, I faced an interesting problem in a geometry class: my professor had drawn a “tilted” parabola and asked us how to solve it. My initial thought was to manipulate the parabola’s equation directly to account for the tilt, but the approach we were taught was far more elegant: instead of rotating the parabola…
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Coloring with linear transformations
In the realm of digital imagery, every pixel seen on screens is fundamentally a mathematical construct, specifically a vector in a carefully defined color space. While there is a intuitive notion of colors as singular entities, they are, in fact, points in a three-dimensional vector space where each dimension represents the intensity of a primary…
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Lessons from Windows 8
As technology marches relentlessly forward, software developers are often faced with a conundrum – how to create interfaces that cater to the needs of both established users and the demands of emerging platforms? This is a delicate balancing act and it was the driving force behind one of the most controversial operating system launches in…
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The iMac is the perfect computer I’ll never buy
There it is, open on my browser’s sidebar: the new iMac M4 gleaming in its array of cheerful colors, looking less like a computer and more like a piece of art that happens to contain a blazingly fast processor. I’ve spent sometime checking different configurations, watching reviews and scrolling on the iconic Apple.com product page…
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Why won’t Apple bring the M chips to their iPhones?
When Apple revolutionized the market with its M-series chips, some wondered why these processors hadn’t made their way onto their phones. While it may seem logical to integrate the M chips into Apple’s iPhone, complex technical challenges, practical considerations and strategic priorities make this move both impractical and unnecessary. The relationship between A-series and the…
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The case for .djvu files
In the 1990s, AT&T birthed a visionary file format named DjVu. In retrospect, this appears more as a philosophical statement about digital documents than mere technology — while conventional formats remained tethered to paper’s physical constraints, DjVu envisioned a revolutionary approach to a world where documents could exist in a truly digital form, breaking free…
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What makes the perfect markdown editor for the Mac?
Ever since I’ve made the switch from traditional “writing” software one question persisted: what makes the perfect markdown editor for Mac? This isn’t just a pursuit of convenience but a journey of aesthetics, form, rhythm. Markdown, in all its simplicity, is a silent manifesto against the chaos of bloated software. It stands as an homage to…
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Dimly lit rooms and office work
Picture someone sitting in a dimly lit café, laptop open, ideas flowing effortlessly. The soft, warm lightning there creates a sort of intimate cocoon around this person and somehow, mysteriously, they’re more focused than it ever felt possible on any given fluorescent office. Now, why is this? The answer is not just a coincidence, but a biology-meets-psychology harmony.…
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The joy of unsolved mysteries
What if the most fulfilling answers are the ones we never find out? is a question worthy of keeping us up at night. In an age where search engines stand out to resolve any uncertainty within seconds and TV shows feel compelled to explain every plot point, and people are obsessed with tying up every loose…
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My smartwatch keeps telling me to stand up
Every half hour or so my watch insists that I stand up — as if I were the laziest person ever. It’s a subtle yet persistent urging that conveys a sense of failure if I don’t comply. The problem I see, however, isn’t the command itself: it’s the implicit accusation behind it: you’re not doing enough. Are we…
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The modern-day throne
The ergonomic office chair I’ve recently purchased from a somewhat popular designer brand came with a 45-minute sermon from the sales assistant on lumbar support and anatomical design. But as I sat there, testing model after model in the showroom, a peculiar thought struck me: aren’t these just modern-day thrones, minus the velvet cushions and…
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Amelie Poulain
Watching Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain is always an experience that transcends the usual language of cinematic critique and slips into a deeply personal spot. It has become engraved into my consciousness after countless rewatches, to the point that I can quote lines, murmur the iconic piano soundtrack and more profoundly feel as though Amélie herself is…
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An iPhone to end it all?
Today, as I was spending time on Instagram’s “Discovery” page, I stumbled upon a post comparing a supposed iPhone SE 4 with the newly release iPhone 16: Model iPhone SE 4 iPhone 16 Display 6.1″ OLED Display 6.1″ OLED Display Refresh Rate 60Hz 60Hz Front Design Notch Dynamic Island Face ID Yes Yes Build Material…
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Sonic signatures
I was with a friend, casually having breakfast with him while he navigated through his iPhone —nothing out of the ordinary — when I noticed something strange: his phone was not on vibrate mode. Yes, him and I kept hearing the unmistakable clicks of iOS keyboard sounds. To me, that sound had long become a relic because…
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Sent from my iPhone
This week I found myself on a certain situation involving an infamous four-word signature: when I replied to an email confirming my presence at a tech event, using the default Mail app on iOS (because someone on Twitter said it handles 2FA codes automatically — a handy little feature, I’ll admit), I hadn’t realized what I were…
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Minimalism is when you buy more stuff
Minimalism has birthed a paradox: people purchasing more things in order to ostensibly minimize. As I scrolled past my Youtube’s recommended section I saw it everywhere – sleek, clutter-free homes adorned with just the right amount of thoughtfully placed minimalist stuff. One of those videos was about a person who bought a digital camera to avoid using…
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I wish convincing people with arguments was real
12 Angry Men is a deeply human story about the nature of judgement, bias, and ultimately the struggle to communicate. In a claustrophobic room, twelve jurors armed with their own prejudices and personal experiences must decide the fate of a young man accused of murder. It’s a tense setting, where emotion and biased logic skirmish. Yet, what stands…
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The weight of a soul
Manchester by the Sea is the kind of film that lingers in your bones long it’s over. It’s a slow-burning masterpiece of raw and unfiltered grief. A type of grief that is isolating and that doesn’t heal. Casey Affleck‘s portrayal of Lee Chandler is the kind of performance that is subtle, reserved, almost too real. He…
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The “gamer” aesthetic is beyond awful
The problem is that Steve Jobs died before he could take on gaming. Gaming hardware seems stuck in a time warp of flashy, superficial designs while mobile devices have transformed from cheap, plasticky gadgets into sleek, sophisticated tools. It’s as if the gaming industry missed the memo on elegant design that Apple sent out years…
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Useless spaces
What is a space? Is it simply a physical location, like a building or a part of a place? Or is it something more metaphysical, a concept shaped by human interaction and perception? The answer lies somewhere in between. Spaces are not just about physical structures; they are about the activities they host, the lives they intersect…
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What about me?
Recently I’ve came across a video on the What about me? effect: a cognitive trap where people assume that every piece of content they encounter is not only for them, but also must be adapted to their specific needs. I’ve then realized how common it was for me to see such a situation like that, and that I wasn’t “seeing things…
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Dreams of convenience
A place that once held so much promise now feels suffocating under the weight of its own excess seems like a good description of the internet. An endless stream of senseless, valueless content generated by bots or people hoping to farm traffic for ad revenue is overwhelming. It’s as if every pixel of the screen…
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I love the menu bar
In the Mac world, the menu bar is a horizontal bar located at the top of the screen. On the left, it features the Apple menu, the current application menu, and the currently active application’s menu options (such as File, Edit, Insert, Format, View, Window, Help). On the right, you’ll find menu extras like the system clock,…
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You don’t need it, but maybe you do
Everyone thinks they need the absolute best. Sure, the last-generation iPhone Pro Max has a monster chip and a camera system so advanced it could possibly film the next blockbuster, but if you were to peek over people’s shoulders all they’re doing is scrolling through Instagram and occasionally playing Subway Surfers or Candy Crush. The same…
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A defying beauty
Maybe in a world obsessed with sleekness, polish, minimalism, post-modernism, the best architecture is raw and unapologetic. I love it, yet I suppose others don’t… Now, why wouldn’t they? Perhaps it has got something to do with the truth brought with itself: concrete, glass and steel all in the open, making a point and challenging the observer.…
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A blessing for the commoners
What do you call something very strong, something that is both material and immaterial, that has its roots in barbarism transposed into civilization; it’s copperish and sometimes yellow like corn, and of course, in its greatest position, black like the night in its entirety. Something that, when cold, warms one up. And hot, one would…
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La La Land is not for you, anyway
La La Land almost made me emotional. Almost. Not in a sobbing, heartbreaking kind of way but in a way that made my soul vulnerable to a resonance of profound bittersweet emotions while I was just sitting there, watching two people I’ve grown to love struggle and strive just to realize life isn’t going to give them…